- War in Mali started in January 2012, leading to death of thousands of citizens
- After decade of MINUSMA operations in Mali, UN is suspending the operations in the country
- Analysts say withdrawal of MINUSMA operations in Mali may jeopardize security, political situation in the country
The genesis of the war in Mali
The Mali war is an ongoing conflict that started in January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, which they called Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.
On 22 March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup d’état over his handling of the crisis, a month before a presidential election was to have taken place. Mutinous soldiers, calling themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR), took control and suspended the constitution of Mali.
As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Mali’s three largest northern cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels on three consecutive days. On 5 April 2012, after the capture of Douentza, the MNLA said that it had accomplished its goals and called off its offensive. The following day, it proclaimed the independence of northern Mali from the rest of the country, renaming it Azawad.
The MNLA were initially backed by the Islamist group Ansar Dine. After the Malian military was driven from northern Mali, Ansar Dine and a number of smaller Islamist groups began imposing strict Sharia law. The MNLA and Islamists struggled to reconcile their conflicting visions for an intended new state.
Afterwards, the MNLA began fighting against Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups, including Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA/MUJAO), a splinter group of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. By 17 July 2012, the MNLA had lost control of most of northern Mali’s cities to the Islamists.
So, battered by such enormous security challenges, the government of Mali asked for foreign military help to re-take the north. On 11 January 2013, the French military began operations against the Islamists. Forces from other African Union states were deployed shortly after. By 8 February, the Islamist-held territory had been re-taken by the Malian military, with help from the international coalition. Tuareg separatists have continued to fight the Islamists as well, although the MNLA has also been accused of carrying out attacks against the Malian military.
A peace deal between the government and Tuareg rebels was signed on 18 June 2013, however on 26 September 2013 the rebels pulled out of the peace agreement and claimed that the government had not respected its commitments to the truce. In mid-2014, the French military in Mali ended its Operation Serval and transitioned to the broader regional counterterrorist effort, Operation Barkhane. Despite a ceasefire agreement signed on 19 February 2015 in Algiers, Algeria, and a peace accord in the capital on 15 April 2015, fighting continued.
Starting in 2018, there was an increase in rebel attacks in the Sahel, accompanied by a French troop surge. Mali experienced two successful coups in 2020 and 2021, both orchestrated by the Malian military. After the Malian coup in 2021, the government and French forces in the country had a falling out, with the former demanding the latter’s withdrawal.
Amid popular Malian anti-French protests and increasing involvement in the war by both the Russian mercenary Wagner Group and the Turkish, the French withdrew their forces from the country entirely by August 15, 2022, ending their presence in the country.
UN Mission in Mali
Following the escalating violence by separatist rebels who were attempting to take control of the north of the country and a subsequent military-led coup, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was deployed to Mali in 2013.
Established by UN Security Council resolution 2100, the MINUSMA included more than 15,000 troops and personnel who served in cities and towns around the country.
Reviewing its operations in Mali, El-Ghassum Wane, outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of MINUSMA, said “I think our work impacted the lives of many civilians in Mali,”
Tackling a range of challenges
In its decade of operations, MINUSMA aided Mali in tackling multiple challenges. Among the UN’s most challenging peacekeeping missions, it has suffered more than 300 fatalities of its troops and personnel amid continuing extremist violence and rampant insecurity across much of the north and centre of Mali.
On December 30, 2023 while extolling the efforts of the mission, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his deepest gratitude to MINUSMA personnel, including the Head of Mission, Mr. Wane.
According to Mr. Guteress, Wane “has provided outstanding leadership in a challenging context”.
Mr. Guteress whose message was conveyed by Stéphane Dujarric, the UN spokesperson stated that Mali was one of the challenging conflicts in recent times.
Paying tribute to the 311 MINUSMA personnel who lost their lives and the more than 700 who were injured in the cause of peace during the 10 years the Mission was deployed in Mali, he said that “the entire United Nations family stands in sympathy and solidarity with the loved ones, friends and colleagues of the fallen staff as we remain inspired by their selfless devotion to the cause of peace”, Mr. Dujarric said.
Mr. Guterres also recognized “the key role MINUSMA has played in protecting civilians, the mission’s support to the peace process, including by ensuring respect for the ceasefire in the context of the 2015 peace and reconciliation agreement, as well as to the transition, its efforts towards the restoration of State authority and the provision of peace dividends to the population”, Mr. Dujarric said.
Supporting political process
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that apart from military support by the MINUSMA, it also supported the political process and carried out a number of security-related stabilization tasks, with a focus on major population centres, protecting civilians, human rights monitoring, creating conditions for providing humanitarian assistance and the return of displaced persons as well as preparing free, inclusive and peaceful elections.
The peace operation also was tasked with using all necessary means to address threats to the implementation of its mandate, which included the protection of civilians under imminent threat of physical violence and protection of UN personnel from residual threats, within its capabilities and its areas of deployment.
Termination of MINUSMA
The termination of MINUSMA, our reporter gathered was as a result of request from the minister of foreign affairs of Mali.
Mali’s foreign affairs minister requested the withdrawal of MINUSMA in a related UN Security Council meeting on 16 June, 2023. On the same day, the transitional government issued a communiqué reiterating its demand for the UN mission to leave without delay.
UN peacekeeping mandates are determined by the Security Council, but politically and practically, missions cannot operate without the support and cooperation of the host authorities.
On 30 June, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2690 effectively terminating MINUSMA’s previous mandate and requesting the transfer of its tasks as well as the safe and orderly drawdown and withdrawal of the Mission by 31 December 2023, to be followed by a liquidation period.
MINUSMA integrated withdrawal plan
To fulfill this goal, MINUSMA developed an integrated withdrawal plan based on ensuring the safety and security of UN personnel, meeting the 31 December deadline, safeguarding the mission’s legacy and preserving an environment conducive to long-term UN engagement in Mali.
However, it was gathered that over the past six months, MINUSMA has been withdrawing its personnel under challenging security circumstances. On Sunday, December 31, 2023 the mission will have completed its drawdown. Having completed its drawdown process, the Mission has now embarked on liquidation which begins on Monday, January 1, 2024.
The beginning of the liquidation period
According to plans by the United Nations, a smaller team and the rear parties of troop- and police-contributing countries will remain at sites in Gao and Bamako to oversee the orderly transportation of assets and appropriate disposal of UN-owned equipment, the UN spokesperson said.
In this regard, the UN chief is counting on the transitional government’s full cooperation to ensure this process is completed as soon as possible, he added.
MINUSMA leaves, but UN will stay
By and large, MINUSMA chief Mr. Wane said the mission might be leaving, but the UN will remain in Mali.
“UN funds, agencies and programmes were in Mali well before the deployment of MINUSMA and will stay in Mali well after the withdrawal,” he said.
Security, political and economic consequences of the MINUSMA withdrawal in Mali
As the peace operations of the United Nations Multidimensions Integrated Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) ceases by January 1, 2024, following termination by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on June 30, 2023, there are still many consequences to be considered for the termination.
Though the regrettable departure was initiated by the Malian military’s transitional administration under Col. Assimi Goita, who came to power in 2021 following a coup. Goita holds the UN responsible for failing to bring peace to Mali since its deployment a decade ago, the MINUSMA presence still had positive security implications especially as the crisis continue to fester.
Consequences of the UN Withdrawal
Malian people’s security is the main concern following the Mission’s departure. It is a known fact that the MINUSMA has contributed significantly to protecting civilians despite its difficulties through patrols, convoys, and static and temporary bases.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that the peacekeepers’ outposts occasionally served as a haven for those displaced by the violent conflict and a location to distribute humanitarian aid.
Through political discourse and involvement with armed actors and communities, the mission was able to develop local conflict prevention systems, advance protection, and reduce violence within communities.
Additionally, the country’s promotion and defense of human rights aided the human rights monitoring, reporting, and capacity-building mandate of MINUSMA. However, in light of the UN’s departure, risks to civilians will increase as the mission winds down, not just from other armed actors but also from the mission’s own actions, resulting from inadequate coordination with local actors and reprisals against civilians who collaborated with the UN.
In addition to this, the security crisis precipitated by Wagner Group mercenaries may be aggravated by the UN’s departure. Documenting some of the organization’s actions in the remote parts of Mali will be difficult, given similar acts of violence and alleged human rights abuses in places like Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and eastern Ukraine.
The UN’s departure could also worsen the precarious security situation and encourage widespread terrorism. Since 2012, political armed factions in northern Mali have engaged in conflict over the control of trafficking routes. These factions include ethnic-based movements, Islamist organizations, and international criminal organizations.
The 2015 peace pact is still in effect, yet the factions that signed it still use violence with its departure. The disputing parties are expected to intensify their hostilities. Jihadists could find additional safe havens to attract recruits while increasing attacks against security personnel and civilians as militants shift to rural areas to capitalize on local unrest coupled with an absence of peacekeepers and a lack of a state to protect citizens.
In relation to this, more Malians will be domestically displaced, and many may look for safety in nearby nations, potentially culminating in a refugee catastrophe. Additionally, seeing as worsening the crisis in Mali would damage the reputation of the UN and the international community; they risk coming under fire for failing to act, as was the case in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. This is because even the international organizations that generally assist the UN Peacekeeping efforts will also pack up and leave as they watch from afar how the security situation unfolds.
Lastly, this crisis provides Russia and China with adversarial possibilities against the influence of the West, particularly the United States, in Mali and the Sahel region. While Wagner mercenaries, currently exiled from Russia, replaced the French foreign military, Mali is being used as a test bed for China’s arms sales and private security corporations in Africa. These mercenaries will probably set up camps and autonomous regions for illegal operations in nations like Mali. In response to Mali’s military authorities’ decision to push out elections until 2026, Russia and China intervened in January 2022 to prevent the UN Security Council from imposing additional sanctions against Mali.
Composition of Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over 1,241,238 square kilometres (479,245 sq mi).
The country is bordered on the north by Algeria, on the east by Niger, on the northwest by Mauritania, on the south by Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, and on the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is 21.9 million. 67% of its population was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. It has 13 official languages, of which Bambara is the most spoken one.
The sovereign state of Mali consists of nineteen regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert. The country’s southern part is in the Sudanian savanna, where the majority of inhabitants live, and both the Niger and Senegal rivers pass through.
The country’s economy centres on agriculture and mining. One of Mali’s most prominent natural resources is gold, and the country is the third largest producer of gold on the continent of Africa. Mali was home to the man reputed to be the richest man who has ever lived, known as Mansa Musa. The country is also known for its exports of salt.
So, bordered by Niger and Burkina Faso who are already reeling in political crisis, withdrawal of MINUSMA troops in Mali will certainly spell a lot of political crisis in the already beleaguered West African sub-region.
Terrorists groups like Islamic State of West Africa Province, ISWAP, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram and other violent non state actors are still very much active in the sub-region. Analysts are of the opinion that withdrawal of MINUSMA may likely rejuvenate some of those terrorist groups in the region.